Science-Jazz & Humanism

Fantastic Future without Computers

Today I have read an article on the website of the German newspaper ‚Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung‘. It was the leading article of todays morning hours and it’s title was „Es gibt keine Digitale Gesellschaft“ – a digital society does not exist {1}. The author shows in certain examples that the concept of a digital society is as virtual as the digital society itself. That people who believe them self they are ‚living in the internet‘ actually live outside the society and their speech has much less the importance they think. He shows that the concept of a digital society itself is a mistake in the categories. Because of the same reason there is no mechanical society or no clockwork society, no electric and no atomic society there cannot be any digital society. All these scientific achievements were so revolutionary they had a cataclysmic character, but the society of men used them as means but was not transforming into it.

The term society is something that has nothing to do with it’s technical means. Society may use all of these means but it cannot exist in one of these or even becoming them. And besides there always exists a dependence of men to primary energy and raw materials because they have non-virtual bodies that really exist. And so you cannot compare a broad phenomena like industrialization or an ‚industrial society‘ with all its socio-economic relations to a simple mechanism like a digital computer network. And most people who think they live inside a ‚digital society‘, who believe they would really live inside a network of calculating machines, actually live outside a real society based on capital and wealth. So far the author of this article. He mentions Ray Kurzweil at the end of his article. One of the so called Transhumanists, technological computer philosophers. Ray Kurzweil, chief technology officer at Google has found one simple solution for any problem in the world: living without a body in a virtual universe, making the paradise an achievable technologic goal. Thereby conveniently eliminating the poor and the miserables from the real world. But wait! This dystopic horror of the Transhumanists has alternatives.

For example my philosophy – only one possibility. In my unassumingly philosophy I show you a way how a human society can live without computers very well. Any goal, any ancient dream can be achieved without computers. I show you all aspects of technological or scientific dreams or utopias of our ancestors: is it ‚living forever‘ or ‚traveling to the stars‘ or ‚eliminating hunger and war‘. Of course it is not as easy by just building one machine that will bring us paradise. Sometimes it has to be asked first: does this actually makes sense? Or is it too naive or even dangerous? Is there another way to reach a similar goal? What are the possible interpretations of the ideals? We cannot build one machine like the computer and this will mean the solution of all problems: this is nonsense. We will use a broad and complex set of tools and mechanisms. The best things we ever did. And of course no ridiculous toy like a computer. And the most important thing above all tools is the human mind and spirit. And of course no so called artificial intelligence. And the human brain is NO thing – it is a gift. No, for all these mentioned goals we need no computers at all.

Even for building space ships actually no computer is necessary. For steering and controlling the attitude and course of space ships, one of the reasons we once developed micro computers, no computer is necessary. The trick is simple: only build them big enough that momentum makes them inert enough that a biological organism can react fast enough to control them.

Today we believe we have to optimize anything because the resources are sparse, they told us. The optimization with computers should distribute the sparse resources as good and equal as possible to all of us. This is the philanthropic interpretation of optimization. And for this optimization that can only work with total control of any aspect of life we are willing to give up freedom. We are willing to give up our freedom for optimization because we have no other choice and without this we will finally die from environmental damage or ecocide, they told us.

In my philosophy I show you another way to distribute resources as good and equally as possible: to get endless resources. Then we don’t need computers anymore because we can afford waste and loss.

We have already developed many perfect machines and tools we only have to use them wise. A strong eight cylinder big block is the perfect motor. A simple light bulb is the perfect way of getting light from electricity. A glasshouse is the perfect way of harvesting fruit and vegetables. There are many more examples for already achieved simple as perfect things without the need to optimize them to a certain new defined point. Such an optimization of a beautiful, perfect thing can only corrupt it. Any human being with a deep feeling for technology and engineering art knows this and feels this, too. Why is a growing number of people going to prefer old classic cars over new ones optimized by computers? Why are people piling up old light bulbs in countries they are prohibited because of energy saving reasons. Some may call them environmental hogs. I believe they are more wise because they don’t listen so much to what is being told to them but more to what they feel deeply. A deep aesthetic feeling leads them to a completely different direction than computers have calculated what should be the best way.

Why is this so? One possible explanation could be: maybe there is no need for us to optimize our tools to meet a predicted condition of scarcity. Maybe there is no scarcity at all. Scarcity is a economic philosophy. It has at least nothing to do with the reality we see at night looking into the sky: endless space with endless resources. So, back to environmental pollution to become free again? A world of economic waste and loss of resources does not automatically contradict nature. Nature itself is extremely wasteful and luxurious with resources where it can afford this. With endless resources and energy there would be no need to damage planet earth to ever find new places to grow crop. Real environmental preservation would be affordable for the first time in human history.

The solution for getting rid of optimization, computers and total control is opulence of energy. And there are several ways to get rid of energy poverty. I show you all ways that already exist. Just read the articles about fusion energy. There is no need to optimize perfect things we already own. We need no computers and no artificial intelligence to find better things or to get into fusion energy at all, because we already own the perfect fusion energy source. A fusion energy source that can be utilized in any dark and icy distinct spot of the solar system and bring us enough light and crop. We same energy source will making us reach the planetary systems of our neighboring stars. Yes the interstellar drive already exists. It is not only the first one. It is the perfect one because of fundamental physical reasons.

No, believe me, we need no computers at all. We can use computers, only if we want to use them – if we want to play around with those toys. But we are not dependent from them by no means. We are not forced to use them as many want us to believe this. Computers are nothing.